Antidepressant drugs.

Abstract

Depression is a disorder of mood that causes strong impact on the patient and his family's quality of life. The increasing number of cases and its social consequences have made depression a great public health problem. Some depressant patients develop suicide thoughts and may try suicide later. The disease occurs in all ages and its prevalence is of 7.4%. Women aged 15 to 29 are more likely to be affected, whereas people aged 50 or older are less affected. The presence of depression worsens the prognostic of other clinical conditions when compared to not depressant patients. This paper describes the main drugs used in the treatment of depression and correlates the drug with the neurobiology of the disease. Aiming the study of the pharmacologic and therapeutic characteristics of antidepressant drugs, a literature review was performed using electronic databases (Pubmed and Lilacs), papers and books related to the theme. The main antidepressant drugs are classified according to their chemical structure or their action on neurotransmitters. An important point in the therapy is the understanding of the pharmacokinetics of the drugs. The choice of the drug must consider the symptoms, the patient's age, other drugs in use, the history of pharmacological treatments and so forth. No drug is significantly better than the other in the treatment of depression. The important thing in choosing a drug is to have the best therapeutic response, the reduction of symptoms, a good adherence to therapy, few side effects and secure drug interaction. By understanding the use of these drugs, it will be possible to give the patient and his family a better quality of life.